Before the Moon Rises
by Forever Rewritten
Summary: Before Robotnik ruled Mobius, it was split into five countries, one of which was ruled by Queen Aleena. Life was fun, and free. Aleena was the perfect queen, a friend to everyone, and playing cupid for her Captain and hand maiden.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's notes: **I know, I know, Sonic Underground is far from popular now a days, and a fair few probably have never watched the cartoon. (if you wanna, it's on Netflix.) And probably very few actually read Fanfiction for the old cartoon. I'm not putting this up for reviews, though a few would be pretty awesome, I'm putting this up for fun. This story is just for fun. If there was a way to keep it fluffy, I would. Unfortunately, anyone who's watched Sonic Underground knows that things take a turn for the worst.

So yes, there is plot. And yes, I am aware the chapters are dreadfully short.

With that out of the way, you may want some background. WHAT IS THIS STORY ABOUT? This is the first story of my 'Green Moon' Series and takes place before Sonic Underground. This story follows Rain, half sister to the infamous Sleet, and lady-in-waiting and friend to Queen Aleena. Rain has horrible luck with her romantic life, and has a long string of ex boyfriends. She expects the worse when she finds herself crushing on the cold Captain of the Guard, Argus.

Without further ado:

**-Before the Moon Rises-**

**(Prelude)**

Rain rushed through the palace gates, not waving to the guards as she usually did. She was late. A whole hour late, thanks to her brother. During the night, the power had been cut, leaving her alarm clock useless. And did Sleet tell her? _No!_ Of course not. He had left a note on the door with a crude smiley face taped to the apartment door. She didn't understand it! Both him and their father depended on her job to support the family. Where would they be if she lost her job? She prayed that Aleena would just brush it off, after all, she had been her chief lady in waiting since they both had been teenagers. They were close friends, but she knew that this was almost unforgivable.

She turned a corner, rushing to a hidden servant entrance. What she didn't see was the guard patrolling the corridor. The two collided, and before the wolf could even think about what happened she was on the ground, her hands twisted behind her back and a knee in her back. "Ow ow ow!" she cried as her snout was pushed into the pavement. "Get off!"

"What are you doing in the courtyard!" the harsh bark told Rain that she had ran into one of the guardsmen.

"Rain Wolfe! Lady in waiting for Queen Aleena!"

Instead of releasing her, the knee was pressed harder into her spine. "Where's your uniform!"

"I don't wear one!" Rain howled. "I've never worn one! Ask anyone! I've worked her for ten years!"

"Uh, Rain's telling the truth, Captain…" Rain opened up one of her orange eyes and saw Lancet, one of the older footman, his dull brown feathers a little ruffled as he looked down at her with an apologetic look. "She's also late…"

Finally, she was allowed to get up. She quickly scrambled to her feet and away from the captain, dusting off her jeans and shirt. Could her day get any worse? She recognized the captain as Argus, son of General Michael, and the latest in a long line of Terriers serving the royal family.

He was also… kinda cute.

"_Rain Wolfe, absolutely not!"_ she scolded herself as soon as that last thought passed through her head. She was NOT crushing on anyone, not after last time!

"I have to go!" she yelped before he could say a word, and rushed through the door of the secret entrance.

* * *

><p>(A few days later)<p>

With the last button put into place, Queen Aleena expected a comment from her handmaiden. After all, Rain always had something to say about the buttons that were almost too tiny for her large hands. Instead, there was silence, or as close to pure silence as one could get in a castle with hundreds of people getting ready for the day. The royal hedgehog turned to look at Rain, only to find the dark grey wolf staring at the closed window. For a moment, she looked to the curtain before deciding that her friend must be lost in thought. After all, there wasn't a giant beetle on the off-white curtain like last time, or anything else remotely interesting.

"Cat got your tongue?" Her tease usually got a small growl from the wolf. Now it just got a sigh.

"Not really, no." Rain looked back at her, suddenly remembering her place. "I'm sorry, my queen. I didn't mean to space out."

Aleena smiled. "No one _means_ to space out," she chided lightly. "What's on your mind?"

Rain suddenly looked nervous, looking down at the floor, letting her blue hair fall over her eyes. "It's… it's nothing, your majesty."

"For you to be all formal, I think it's more than nothing." She grinned as she dragged Rain to the chairs by the window, opening the curtains to let the morning light in before taking a seat. "You know all my secrets, so tell me what's going on."

Rain sighed as she looked from the queen to down at the courtyard below. "The new Captain of the Guard," she whispered. "That's what's going on."

Aleena frowned, "Argus? Please don't tell me he snapped at you for being informal." While most staff of the castle wore uniforms, Rain and a handful of others didn't. She didn't want to force uniforms on those who didn't want them, as long as they had the small button pinned to their shirt that told of their place and job, they could wear whatever they wanted. Within reason, of course.

However, Rain shook her head. "No, he hasn't said a word. I just…"

It took a while, but Aleena finally understood what she was trying to say. "Are you blushing under that fur of yours?" A grin broke out on Aleena's face as Rain nodded absently. "Oh great Mobius, you have a crush on Argus!"

"Aleena!" Rain whined. "Not so loud! It's just a silly crush."

"On one of the most stiffest and by-the-rule person in all of Mobius!" The hedgehog couldn't help but tease. "After all, look at your past boyfriends! Why the sudden change?"

"Look how all my past boyfriends turned out," Rain sighed, "Ricky went off with another gal. Jlin was chased off by _Sleet_ of all people. And you know how Tarin was." The wolf gestured to her burnt and scarred face caused by her latest boyfriend. "I want a guy who's not a scaredy cat, literally, someone who's loyal, who won't hurt me when I say no."

"And has the emotion span of a brick," Aleena supplied. "Well, you know what you have to do, don't you?"

Rain paused, not liking the look on her queen's face. "Avoid him at all costs until I'm over him?"

"No, see if you can't get to know him better. Then maybe he'll let me and Silver go on a date without guards following us everywhere." Aleena heard a small whine from her. "I could make it an official… Actually, yeah, I'll do that."

"Do what?" Rain's full attention was on the devious queen. "Official what?"

"I'll make an Official Decree. You and Argus have to go on three dates."

"Ah, bu, wha, gah." Aleena started to laugh as Rain gaped at her. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope!" Aleena jumped to her feet and clapped her hand happily. "I'll call an emergency meeting. I'll summon my advisors right away! This cannot wait!"

"Aleena the hedgehog!" Aleena took off in a sprint when she heard Rain's howl, laughing as she gathered her skirts and ran down the hall. "Don't you dare!"

"I'm the queen and I can do whatever I want!" She laughed as she slid around a corner. "I don't see why you're so upset! You want to get to know him better."

"I never said that!"

"You know you want too!"

"I don't need you meddling in my love life!" Rain yelled as she scrambled around the same corner, coming close to hitting the wall before taking off after the queen again. "You're happy with Silver, why don't you just leave... eep!"

Queen Aleena grinned from beside her new 'friend' as Rain crashed on the floor before jumping up again, straightening her blouse and slacks. "I, um, Captain Argus, sir."

Argus frowned at her, almost to the point of glaring. "Is there are reason why both of you can be heard all across Mobotropolis?"

"Lighten up, Argus." Only the queen would be allowed to say such a thing, and elbow him lightly in the side, without serious injury. But that didn't mean she got away with it without him looking over to her with the same disapproving look on his face. "Rain and I were just playing around." Aleena gave a wicked smile to Rain, "you know, teasing about the other's crushes."

"Aleena…" Rain half whined, half growled.

There was a heavy silence while the two girls continued to glare at each other, or a teasing smile on Aleena's face while Rain glared. Argus sighed when it was obvious the two females were to wrapped up with whatever was going on between them. "Very well, your majesty." He gave a nod to the hedgehog before turning around and walking away without another word. It was too early in the morning for this.

"Like I said, emotional range of a brick," Aleena half-whispered after walking over to her friend's side. "But, I guess he's kinda cute. He has a nice backside at least…"

"Aleena!"

She grinned at Rain's embarrassment. "Well, he does."


	2. Chapter 2

**I wanted to say thanks to **_VioletAssassin_** for your review. The idea of giving Sleet a sister was conceived when I was writing the sequel (and for me, the first story in this series), and decided that the heroine of **_Once in a Green Moon_** should be related to Sleet somehow, and having her be a daughter seemed too cliché. Thus, Rain was created after her daughter, then I decided that a backgrounds story would be cool, and thus this was born. (Yes, I'm writing this series backwards. It gets confusing at times.)**

**Anyways, thank you!**

* * *

><p><strong>(Chapter One)<strong>

For the last ten minutes, Rain was really starting to hate Aleena. And the emotion was growing every moment as she nervously walked down one of the many old-fashioned street markets, watching Aleena look at the various merchandise when not talking with Silver- Aleena's longtime boyfriend from the northern country. Everyone in Mobotropolis loved the queen and happily pretended she was just a regular person when she roamed the city in a plain white tunic and dark blue slacks. They completely disregarded the crown in her purple hair; or her Captain of the Guard always a few feet behind her along with the grey wolf moodily walking beside him.

Rain was trying to ignore the nervousness and anxiety twisting her stomach into knots by glaring at Aleena. To Rain's temporarily relief, Aleena hadn't made any decree or anything like she had with another ex-boyfriend of Rain's. Except that was to get a restraining order and banish the weasel from Mobotropolis. No, instead she asked (blackmailed, Rain would insist) that she accompany her and Silver while they went shopping. The Queen had pleasantly forgotten to tell her that Argus was also coming along until they met him and Silver at the castle's gates. However, Rain blamed herself for that oversight. Because of the rising threat from the Southland, Aleena wasn't allowed anywhere outside the castle without some kind of guard.

"_Here, see if he has more emotions than serious and annoyed,"_ Aleena had whispered, nudging Rain towards Argus before running over to Silver when the day had first begun. Wisely, the Queen had said little else so far to her lady in waiting.

"Is there something bothering you?" Rain jumped at Argus' question. He hadn't said a word all day, and she had been to wound up at cursing Aleena in her head she had forgotten he was still keeping pace with her. Or was she keeping pace with him?

"I, uh, no, not really." She shook her head. "Nothing's bothering me."

"Then you usually glare hatefully at the Queen regularly?" The question was spoken softly, but there was obviously something else in the tone, almost a cautious warning.

"No, of course not!"she hastily covered up. "I'm just… upset with her for something she did."

"The two of you seem to get into a lot of fights lately."

"We're… disagreeing on the solution to a problem."

Silence fell between them as they followed the two hedgehogs through the market. Rain was no longer glaring at Aleena, but switching from looking at her hands, the ground, and sneaking glances at Argus. She had five boyfriends before, and usually she was the one who took life by the reigns and made her feelings known. But this time, she was nervous. There was no way he was like Turin the banished weasel or any of the others. He was the Captain of Aleena's Guard, and she had each and every one of her staff investigated thoroughly before they were hired.

"Why'd you join the Guard?" Her mouth had spoken the question the only a few milliseconds after her mind had wondered it.

Strangely, he didn't seem surprised or bothered by the question. "My family has always served in the Guard, usually ending up as the captain eventually."

"Ah." There was a light smile on her face as the tension eased somewhat. She glanced over at him again, and was surprised to find him looking at her curiously. "What?"

"How did you become the Queen's only lady in waiting?" He asked, quickly turning his attention to the Queen who was currently leaning on her boyfriend, laughing at something.

"I've been around Aleena since both of us were infants, since my mom used to be one of her nannies. Her dad was upset by the fact the two of us grew up to be close friends, considering my family and all, but Aleena didn't care. When I was old enough, I applied to be a handmaiden so we could still hang out. As soon as she ascended the throne, she relocated her other ladies in waiting and declared one person was enough to help her."

"So you are no threat to her." Rain wasn't supposed to hear him mutter under his breath, but her large ears weren't for decoration. It hurt her slightly to know he had suspected her of ever harming Aleena, but remembered the whispers about someone wanting the Queen dead. What better position to do that than being her one and only lady in waiting? She was around the Queen every day, and almost all day.

"She's my best friend," she stopped, putting a hand on his arm to make him pause and face her, "but first and foremost she is my Queen, and I will lay down my life for her." She was glad she had fur covering her face so no one could see her blush as he study her face, a small smile finally appearing on his face.


End file.
